Challenges Mind and Body
by Rain Grey Wolf
Summary: A bunch pf almost oneshots tied together by a common theme or plot. It'll make more sense when you read it.
1. Helium Sticks

"Okay men this is a team building activity," Mixy started, "and I have no clue how it works so pay attention to Wolf as she explains how this works."

"Thanks for your wonderful help Mix. Okay so here's how this works. You are all divided into groups of six. Make two lines facing each other and hold out you index fingers so the tops of your fingers are up. Then I will walk around and place a stick on top of your fingers. You must lower the sticks to the ground using only your index fingers and you all must be touching the stick at the same time. If someone isn't touching it you must stop and wait for that person to touch the stick before you may start again. Should be easy enough right? Any questions?" Wolf looked around to see if there were any questions, there were. "Yes O'Connell what's your question?"

"What did you say the name of this was?" Asked O'Connell looking at his partners.

"I didn't," replied Wolf, "I'll tell you after you all finish" another hand went up. "Yes Van what is it?"

"What's the point of lowering a stick to the ground. Is this just something you came up with to waste time?" Van seemed annoyed at having to do such an easy assignment so Wolf decided to reply.

"As I said before Van this is a team building exercise, but since the words were obviously to big for you I'll put it another way. This "game" is going to make you all stop acting like infants and help you to stop arguing and hopefully teach you to put aside your differences long enough so that in battle you don't get toasted." There were no more questions after that. "Okay let's get started."


	2. Many Words but Nothing Said

_I believe I left off with them getting started. I hoped all one of you enjoyed that chapter. _

_Insert witty disclaimer here:

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It didn't take long for the men to figure out that this activity was harder than it should be. So of course being grown men such as themselves, what would they do but solve the issues in a completely mature fashion? Whine like kid's who've had their candy taken away that's what. Thomas was getting increasingly irritated with his group, mainly Van. Hermann was doing well with Schubaltz and the rest of his group, but they weren't making much progress. The rest of the groups were in chaos everyone yelling at everyone else, some of the groups were turning against each other. Yes it was third grade all over again with heaps of blame flying in every direction.

Meanwhile Mixy and two other people who had shown up to watch the fun was enjoying a game of cards.

"Isn't it hard to play solitary with three people?" Asked Wolf with a yawn.

"Nope. Actually it's a lot easier." Replied a blonde girl who was at that moment in deep thought over a five of spades.

"Okay if you say so." Wolf rolled her eyes and turned to the other girl who had just started attacking her book bag. "Meso what are you doing to your back-pack?"

"It bit me!" Meso answered continuing to beat the bag.

"Okay, how exactly did the **bag** bite you?" Questioned Wolf hoping to God that Meso wasn't going insane, well more insane anyways.

"Actually I don't know, but it won't open." Meso threw the bag on the ground and gave up.

"Right. Loki why don't you just put the five with the six of hearts over there?" Asked Mixy starring at the card.

"Huh? Oh yeah that could work couldn't it?" Loki snapped out of her Trans and put the five down. "So how are the) Reperials doing? (ReperialsRepublicans and Imperialists together. REP-EAR-Y-ALS.)

"I think they're going to kill each other." Speculated Wolf eyeing the crowd below.

"Do you think they've had enough?" Mixy laughed as Van started yelling at Thomas.

"Yeah let's bring them in before they start crying." Meso laughed back.

"Okay men I'm sure you've all completed your task multiple times by now right?" Wolf said scanning the crowd for any signs of achievement. There were none. "You mean to tell me that out of all you strong intelligent men none of you could lower a stick to the ground?" Van felt the need to state his observations on this.

"The sticks were floating! How do you expect us to lower them to the ground of they only go up?" There were murmurs of agreement when Van was done.

"You mean to tell me that these stick defy the laws of physics and gravity?" Retorted Wolf, she was going to have fun with this one. "Mixy, Meso, Loki go collect these wonderful objects I want to test the break through my self." They did as instructed laughing all the way.

Once the stick were in her hands wolf went to the center of the stage they had been sitting on and dropped one of the sticks. It fell to the ground, but there was no floating, gravity took over and that was it.

"Okay now tell me again how exactly does this," she dropped another stick, "count as floating?" Without giving anyone a chance to interject she continued to speak. "This activity is called **'Helium Sticks'** I learned of it when I was a freshman in High School. Do you want to know why you weren't able to get the sticks on the ground was?" Nobody answered. "The reason is you, not the stick you had. Look I'll prove it to you." Wolf dropped the reaming sticks one by one. Some of them bounced on the ground, but not a single one of them levitated. "There I hoped you were all paying attention because if you saw any of those float I want you to tell me for you need serious help." O'Connell spoke up with some very sensible words of wisdom.

O'Connell spoke up with some very sensible words of wisdom. "Isn't the reason no one could do it because we all were think what others were doing wrong and not what we could do as a group to fix it?"

"Yes I'm glad you learned something from this. What about everyone, what do you think was the cause of this incredible failure?" Wolf was pleased that the whole group wasn't made up of morons. "Yes Schubaltz what's your insight on this?"

"Everyone was yelling at people in their group, but they weren't saying anything." Replied Schubaltz.

"Yes, there you go. Communications is what Schubaltz says was wrong and he was exactly right. There was a whole lot of talking going on, but nothing was being said."

"What do you mean? That makes no sense." Fumed Van crossing his arms in frustration.

"What I mean is you were all saying thing that didn't mean anything they were just words of anger and disagreement. Nothing useful was coming out of your mouths." Explained Wolf as she walked to the edge of the stage and sat down cross legged. "Let me share something with you. Communications win and lose battles, possibly even wars, on false slip of the tong or misinterpretation and you just shot yourselves in the foot. You lose if you can't communicate that's all there is to it." Wolf had a deadly serious look on her face when she said this. She scanned the crowd to see if what she had said sunk in before she continued. "Okay so we know why we failed does any one have any ideas on how to make it so you could get this down?" Van raised his hand, but Wolf said nothing she just pointed to him signaling him to begin.

"Maybe if we counted down and all moved at the same time it might work better." Suggested Van timidly. He didn't want to sound stupid.

"That's exactly what you should have done," Agreed Wolf, "now what did you learn from this?"

"Fighting with people on your own side is of no use it only gets you into trouble." Stated Thomas when Wolf pointed to him. Irvine was pointed out next, even though he wasn't a soldier he was forced to do this all the same.

"Sometimes things get done faster when you are on your own." Revealed Irvine in his taunting manner.

"Yes that is true as well sometimes groups can only hinder your movement. Wouldn't it have been easier if I gave you each your own stick and told you to do this?" Wolf praised Irvine for his rare insight. "Unfortuneatly you'll be forced to work with people no matter what you do you have to be able to communicate and cooprerate with others there is no escaping that."

"I learned that it is a heck of a lot easier to do this when the sticks don't float, oh and that rules get in the way." Proclaimed proudly.

"Yes it would be rather hard to do this assignment **if **the sticks floated, but they don't, seriously though you are right about the second one. Rules do get in the way sometimes."

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"Well I think you have all had enough for today. It's already bee three hours, so go and get some work done."

_That's all for now I have to go and finish my home work. Read and review._

_Shamanah:_ _heheheh, van's a bit of a smartass...I like it._

_Yes I like it too. No one ever has him as a smartass even though that's what he is so I though I'd change that._


	3. To Suicide Rock and Back

Back again with terrible news, I still don't own Zoids, I know this deeply affects you. **ON WITH THE SHOW!**(Meso is now spelled Miso)

The next morning at breakfast everybody was talking about the day before. Wolf, Mixy, Miso, and Loki were all mysteriously absent. In fact they all had seemed to disappear right after the session the day before and their absence had not gone unnoticed.

"I wonder where Wolf and them went anyways it's not like people can just disappear." Wondered Moon-Bay aloud as she sat down at the table with Van and their group.

"I know I think it's weird too," replied Van, "I think we should ask them what's up next time we see them."

"I guess that wouldn't hurt anything." Said Moon-bay eyeing a piece of toast on her plate.

It was three o' clock when they got their chance to find out where the girls had gone. Moon-bay spotted Wolf walking down the hall with Mixy and Loki. Mixy and Loki were talking and laughing, but Wolf hung back slightly staring off into space.

"Hi guys what's up?" Asked Moon-bay as they approached.

"Not much. What about your self?" Responded Mixy smiling broadly.

"I'm good. I've been meaning to ask you guys, where do you go after the sessions? I never see you around." Moon-bay seriously hoped she didn't sound stupid, but it was too late to change any impressions now.

"Uh… um… Wolf can answer that one." Loki and Mixy said in unison stepping behind Wolf.

"We leave the base, we don't work here all the time, and we have other jobs too. Plus we aren't exactly what you'd call military personal." Explained Wolf. Moon-bay could tell that she had to work hard to phrase the answer right.

"Really I didn't know that." Said Moon-bay looking rather intrigued. "Well see you around then."

"Yeah you too." Loki waved as they walked past. The conversation they had been having picked up again and Wolf was left trailing behind lost in thought.

Not long after their brief encounter with Moon-bay Wolf, Loki, and Mixy were on the stage again in front of every one. For today's session they had something special in mind.

"Alright guys for today's activity we need to go off the base so get ready for a field trip." Announced Loki looking around while Mixy and Wolf passed out maps to one person in each group and walked back.

"I think that's everyone Loki." Said Mixy as she walked over to the stage.

"Right then let's blow this Popsicle stand." Yelled Loki in response while running towards the vehicle they would be using.

A short drive later everyone was parked on a pull off near the road. They were in a remote mountain location surrounded by evergreen trees and wild bushes. Birds were flying over head singing and playing with each other. It was a beautiful scene and everyone would have been content just looking around them unfortunately that is not what Wolf, Mixy, Loki, and Miso get paid to do.(Miso just joined the group) So after they felt like everyone had a good enough stretch they began to give the details on why they were where they were.

"I hope every one had a good nights sleep because today we're hiking to Suicide Rock." Laughed Miso as she walked up to stand next to Wolf.

With out any prompting Wolf started to walk up a trail. It was beautiful trees on each side on the wide path and wonderfully scented bushes and a small stream that came from the top of the mountain ran next to the trail making a pleasant sound. Everyone was happy until about five miles up that is.

"Exactly how far away is Suicide Rock?" Panted Moon-bay when she caught up with Wolf who was in the lead with Miso and Mixy, Loki was **"encouraging**" people in the back to pick up the pace.

"About ten miles." Replied Wolf after looking around for a second.

"Good, only five miles to go." Sighed Moon-bay.

"Uh, no, ten more miles from here." Wolf said emphasizing the more and here parts of that sentence.

"What? Are you trying to kill us!" yelled Moon-bay jumping up in surprise.

Miso looked behind her to see the other people. "Yes and no." she smiled manically. Moon-bay dropped back to walk with Van, Hermann, and Irvine. They walked in an unhappy silence for an about two miles until Van couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't believe this! What does walking up a mountain teach us? I'm getting tired, Moon-bay, how many miles do we have left?" He groaned kicking several rocks.

"Eight I think." Stated Moon-bay dryly, "My feet hurt."

"Hurry up. My word you are an out of shape bunch. I hiked this last week and we were at the top an hour ago! Get moving! You call yourselves soldiers. I don't think so!" That was lovely Loki speeding up the slackers. She was most effective at this because she was carrying a whip like branch which she wasn't afraid to hit anyone with if she felt they weren't moving fast enough.

"I think we should speed up she's beginning to scare me." Said Moon-bay glancing back just in time to see Loki pick up a handful of rocks.

"She has a point though we're soldiers we should be able to do this no problem." Hermann sighed and shook his head. Five miles later Van was complaining again, only this time it was slightly warranted. You see the stream I mentioned earlier, well, it turns in to a river further up and it's rather noisy. And Van is about to spring a leak.

"Argh, I have to go!" Van whined hopping slightly. This continued for a while until it got so irritating that Mixy decided to take care of the problem.

"If you have to go that bad find a bush. It's not like there is a lack of those out here. So go pick one!" She screamed at him loud enough so people at the bottom in their cars could probably hear her. Van turned bright red and quietly took care of business.

Finally after a couple of hours of hiking they reached they're destination and everyone collapsed on the ground and cried. Not really, they didn't have time for that. Wolf lined them up and told them why they did the hike.

Alright, the reason we walked all the way up here is because this is where your next activity will be in fact I think Loki, Miso, and Mixy already left to set it up." Wolf paused to see if anyone had any input, there were lots.

"I thought you said the hike was the exercise!" exclaimed Van turning bright red at the thought of doing more work.

"Uh, no, Miso said we would be hiking to Suicide Rock today. Nowhere in that sentence does that say that is the activity you would be doing." Replied Wolf in a dismissive tone.

"Why didn't you tell us we were going to be doing something else then?" asked Thomas crossly. He wasn't one for physical activities and wasn't looking forward to doing anything else other than going back to the base after that hike.

"You didn't ask." Was Wolf's simple, but effective, reply.

"What was the point of the hike then? Surely we could have done this activity somewhere that doesn't require that much work to get to." Yelled Irvine. He did fine on the hike but doing something that didn't give him direct results was not something he enjoyed doing.

"There are two reasons we took that hike; the first reason is it is a beautiful walk and I enjoy it, the second I will tell you once we get back down the mountain." Sighed Wolf. Soldiers could be such babies.

Wolf's walkie-talkie crackled to life as Loki's voice came through. "Everything's set up bring them over anytime you feel like it."

"All right it seems that everything is ready. So lets get moving," Wolf looked around and then added, "it's not that far away don't worry." About one hundred and twenty feet later they were standing in front of what appeared to be a giant spider web coming off of two trees.

"What the heck is this?" gasped Van when he saw the "web".

"This," replied Miso "is you will be doing today. Take a good look at the web there are six more like it. Break up into the groups you were in yesterday and choose a web. There should be two groups per web." Miso waited for everyone to pick a web before she continued. "Okay now that that is over I want you all to find a way to get through your web with out touching the string. You can only use one hole once so when your finished sit down and relax." Everyone got started and once again what should have been a simple task turned out to be a lot harder than it sounded.

Van and Hermann's group were at one net and about half way through couldn't figure out how to get the rest through. Thomas and O'Connell's groups were together and were having similar troubles. The other groups didn't get as far before they experienced their problems, but they were relatively the same.

"Do you think we should give them some hints?" Miso asked Wolf after seeing yet another failed attempt to get through a web.

"No let them figure it out. It'll be good for them." Replied Wolf "Anyone up for a game of** 'Egyptian Rat Trap'**?" She asked as she pulled out a deck of cards.

"Hells yeah!" Miso, Mixy, and Loki yelled jumping up.

Two hours and fifteen games of **E.R.T **later Miso sat laughing and smiling. "Wow you guys suck at this!" Miso had won all fifteen games and wasn't to humble about it. "Man I rock!"

"Alright we get it!" Snapped Mixy.

"Awa, you're only sore, because I won you money." Said Miso holding ten dollars tauntingly in front of Mixy's face.

"No I'm not." Mixy spat turning around.

"I think they're done guys." Loki broke in pointing at the groups. Indeed everyone was sitting down looking rather tired and put out.

"All right men way to go you all finished. Let's go back down and we'll talk about what this was supposed to teach you at the base. How's that sound to you?" No one said anything they just took off down the trail at a flat out sprint. Laughing at their sudden burst of energy Mixy, Miso, Loki, and Wolf ran after them and what was a three hour hike up turned out to be a ten minuet sprint down. It's doubtful that everyone was even touching the ground they were going so fast.

That's it for this chapter I hope you enjoyed it. Oh I might put up the rules for Egyptian Rat Trap on my profile. I just have to remember them.


	4. Fifteen and Three Quarters

_**I'm happy to say that I'm writing more than I normally do. I hope everyone who reads my work really enjoys it even if it's just a little bit. I still don't own Zoids, I know you're all so shocked, and that's enough for me.

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What was a four hour hike up was a four minuet sprint down and the second everyone got to the cars they jumped in and floored it all the way to the base. That's how Wolf knew that their work was paying off. Not one argument broke out on the way down the mountain or on the drive back. It was a good feeling but she really hoped that it wasn't a temporary change.

"Okay, now that everyone's here tell me, what did you learn from this activity?" Asked Wolf as soon as everyone was in the hanger and listening. (The hanger was where all of their sessions have taken place so far)

Van was the first to speak. "I learned that you can't just look at things one way and that sometime other people see options that you may not see yourself."

"That's excellent Van I'm glad to see you've made progress." Wolf paused to look around the room. "Thomas, what about you, what did you learn?" Thomas looked at Wolf for a second before answering the question.

"The same thing that Van learned actually." He replied thoughtfully.

"Is that all everybody learned from this activity? I mean that's grate you found that out but come on I can see at least one thing you're over looking. It's really important too." There were blank stares across the room. "Major Hermann why don't you give it a shot."

"Sure," he said while trying to come up with what the answer could be, "That we shouldn't just assume things are what we think they are. That just because someone doesn't say something straight off doesn't mean it doesn't apply."

"Awesome, you hit the nail on the head with that one." Wolf smiled "Guys I know you may think this isn't a big deal, but not long ago you all assumed something that wasn't true and that will cost you every time. You never assume things you always need to be prepared for the unexpected. Now I know what I would be thinking if I were you right now; I would be thinking 'big whop we neglected to foresee an assignment when we got to the top.'…"

"Really? That's what you'd be thinking!" Mixy said in an amazed tone.

"Yeah, why? Is that a problem or something?" Wolf replied knowing quite well where this was headed.

"No, but man, you think in complex words. Foresee, neglected, and all that jazz. I think you may be the only person I know who thinks like that." Mixy was teasing Wolf now. She did it every time Wolf said that she was thinking something and used "complex" words to describe what she thought.

"That's… good… I guess. Anyways my point is that hike we were on could have bee you on you next mission and the activity you didn't anticipate at the top that could have been a group of bandits or some dangerous thing you wouldn't have been prepared for because you assumed you would have no problems." There was a nice silence as Wolf's words sunk into the minds of everyone that was there. Unfortunately the quiet didn't last long.

"Yeah, remember when you assume you make an ass out of you and me." Miso yelled as she stood up. "Now get out of here and do something useful." Mixy and Loki giggled a little bit as they walked out of the room.

"Very nice Miso. I'm glad you could provide them with a spelling lesson before they left." Wolf sounded serious but she was smiling.

"Hey I had to say something elswise you would have been the only one teaching the Reperials anything."

"Yeah I guess so. Oh and Miso."

"Yeah?"

"Elswise isn't a word." Mixy, Loki, and Miso laughed even though it wasn't that funny. Wolf just smiled and walked in her normal position in the rear of the group.

Later that evening Wolf sat alone in the mess hall. Her friends had already left for the night and she had no one else to hang out with. That's the way Schubaltz and Hermann found her when they walked into the mess hall. It looked kind of sad she was leaning over the table head on her hand staring at a wall.

"Are you going to stand there staring or do you need something?" Wolf said not moving her gaze off the, oh so interesting, wall.

"Huh, um, we don't need anything just came in here to talk." Replied Hermann.

"Have fun with that." Wolf stood up and turned to leave but Schubaltz caught her arm. "This is about what now?"

"Are you alright?" Asked Hermann sitting down at the table Wolf had been at.

"Peachy. Now again do you want something?" Wolf jerked her arm out of Schubaltz's grasp.

"Why don't you sit down? It would be nice to get to know you." Schubaltz sat down Wolf followed suite.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"For starters how old are you?" Hermann couldn't resist it had been bothering him since the moment he was told he had to take orders form her.

"Fifteen and three quarters." Sighed Wolf.

"Your fifteen!" Both of the officers yelled together.

"I turn sixteen in a month but that doesn't matter. Does it?" Wolf turned her gaze away from the wall and started staring at the table top.

"No. I just can't picture and the other being sixteen." Hermann said quickly.

"You can't picture Miso Mixy and Loki and teenagers?" Asked Wolf a little shocked.

"I can." Said Schubaltz picturing the three reeking havoc on some poor teacher.

"If you're fifteen how come my mo… the President hired you to teach us how to get along?" Prodded the republican major.

"Because we come highly recommended by our friend father who does this sort of thing also and because Miso and Mixy are Imperials and Loki and I are Republicans and we are all best friends and always have been even if we had to lie to hang out with each other." Wolf looked at the wall again.

"Oh. So how long have you all known each other?" It was Schubaltz's turn to ask questions.

"We met each other in third grade we used to hang out in the park together…until our parents met up with one another that is." Wolf cringed slightly hinting that there was yelling and possibly violence.

"That's good. So if you're fifteen you still go to school right? Where do you guys go to?" Schubaltz glanced at Hermann shooting him an, I feel like a moron, look.

"We go to Valley Core High. We have gone the V.C district since our freshman year." Wolf smirked…it was kind of scary.

"Why your freshmen year?" Continued the colonel.

"Funny story really…"

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_**Okay that's it for chapter four. I hope you all enjoyed it because I certainly did. I know it was a bit more serious that the other chapters and I promise that Chapter five will be packed full of random laughs…hopefully… Any ways this is Rain Grey Wolf saying "Please Review!"**_


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